


Our Love Is Here To Stay

by asimaiyat



Series: Love Walked In [2]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Morning After, Multi, Peter sleeps through most of the fic sorry, Threesome, el-centric, very mild angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-23
Updated: 2012-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:09:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asimaiyat/pseuds/asimaiyat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>El wakes up and everything's (mostly) the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Love Is Here To Stay

When Elizabeth wakes up, everything is as it's always been -- Peter's sound asleep on his side of the bed, Satchmo is dozing on the floor, and the bedroom is quiet and warmed by sunlight filtering through the sheer drapes on the east window. She wonders for a second if her memories from last night were just a dream.

The images feel delicate, like watercolors -- Neal casting his eyes down, his shoulders curling in on himself as he softly confessed his feelings, Peter's arm encircling him against the back of the couch, Neal's fingertip tracing El's cheekbone as she draws back from their first tentative kiss... the three of them wrapped around each other in bed, holding on tight, murmuring words of love and reassurance and awe at each other's beauty and strength.

She can't quite pull herself out of the half-dream, not wanting to let go of those soft-focus images that can't possibly coexist with her sunlit life of details and logistics and compromises and constant vigilance in case something goes wrong. But then she hears the hiss of the tea kettle downstairs, and yes, somehow, it's all real.

When she comes down the stairs in her pajamas, Neal is in the kitchen standing by the stove. He's dressed already, dark-wash jeans and a loose-fitting white button-down, and his hair is perfectly in place, and he's snipping fresh chives over three elegant French omelets oozing wirh gruyere. He turns around to flash a smile at her.

"Morning, El!"

"Oh, Neal," she replies, with a smile that's a little sad around her eyes. The egg timer goes off and, understanding implicitly, she ducks around him to push down the plunger on the French press, breathing in the bracing scent of dark roast coffee. "You really didn't have to do this."

"I wanted to," he says, and reaches out to smooth a strand of hair away from her face. His face looks warm and open, and she understands that he's going to take a while to get used to being vulnerable around them, to being more than a guest in their house, to being anything other than perfect and captivating at any given time. It could take a while, but they're willing to give him all the time he needs. "You'll learn, she murmurs under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," she replies as he hands her a mug of perfect coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt from candymasochist on tumblr: "Neal/Peter/Elizabeth, the morning after their first night together." Sorry Peter did not want to be in this ficlet very much! I don't know what his problem is.


End file.
